Leveraging the Lutheran Legacy

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Abstract

This conference essay seeks to examine how Martin Luther and his successors impacted the
singing assembly during the Lutheran Reformation and give an honest assessment of the
challenges to maintaining a distinctive hymnological emphasis in both congregational and
educational ministries today. The twenty-first century church can struggle to face the
discrepancy between the rising consumption of music on digital playlists in society and the
actual production of hymn singing in the church. At the same time, some areas of the church
have become polarized in their preferences for the forms and styles of so-called “traditional”
and “contemporary” hymnody. If left unchanged, this essay contends it could not only fail to
leverage but also threaten the legacy Martin Luther has left the church. After assessing the
challenges, it examines criteria for determining the best hymns today and concludes with a case
study of Luther’s own hymn “Dear Christians, One and All, Rejoice” (Nun freut euch, liebe
Christen, ge’mein). No matter where an individual congregation or school falls on the worship
spectrum, Luther’s approach of careful innovation has the potential to greatly contribute to the
worship dialogue of the singing church today.